PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the federal government and Peshawar Electric Supply Company chief to formally respond to a petition challenging ‘inflated’ power bills due to fuel price adjustment (FPA).

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali fixed Feb 10 (Thursday) for the next hearing into the petition of Sajjad Ali and two other residents of Mardan praying it to declare those excessive charges illegal and unconstitutional.

It directed additional attorney general Aamir Javed to submit replies on behalf of the respondents, including the secretary of the power division, Wapda chairman and Pesco chief.

The bench also asked him to provide a copy of any judgment passed by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on the issue.

Petitioners pray PHC to declare excessive FPA charges in power bills illegal

The petitioners claimed that the Pesco consumers had received highly inflated electricity bills the current month with the FPA, which was almost two times more than the original bill of the consumption of electricity.

They said that the cost of electricity was far less than the FPA, which was added to the original bills.

The petitioners also sought an interim relief from the court in the form of the suspension of the imposition of FPA in the monthly bills until the disposal of the petition. They attached several electricity bills with their petition.

The respondents in the petition are the Wapda chairman, its general manager (operation), Pesco managing director, secretary of the power division, and chairman of the Pesco board of directors.

The petitioners’ lawyers, including Noor Alam Khan and Shabina Noor, said that if a consumer had used electricity to the tune of Rs2,000, he or she received a electricity bill of Rs4,500, including Rs2,500 as FPA.

They claimed that the infuriated power consumers had been visiting the Pesco offices in different sub-divisions with inflated bills for correction, but to no avail.

The counsel said that the consumers had also been staging protests wherein they had been demanding of the government to reduce the FPA tax as that was an injustice with the consumers.

They said that the protests led the closure of roads and disruption of traffic inconveniencing motorists and commuters.

The lawyers said that charging the people excessively instead of the actual cost of power consumption was an unconstitutional act on part of the government.

They said that the issuance of inflated bills was a violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and it was in the domain of the high court to check such unconstitutional acts.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2022